The Southern District Health Board is having chronic problems recruiting new staff, especially nurses. Staff shortages have already affected services and some surgeries have been postponed due to lack of staff, an SDHB hospital advisory committee meeting was told yesterday. "The one I am losing the most sleep about is nursing vacancies," SDHB chief executive Chris Fleming said. "As an example, there are 750 nursing vacancies in aged residential care at the moment, nationally, and we have got beds closed in our region because of a lack of aged residential care nurses. "We have got surgical beds closed today because of staff shortages in Dunedin Hospital, and the the traditional supply chain is not working ... and lo and behold, a number of our new recruits are coming from aged residential care."

Source: Otago Daily Times July 06, 2021 15:22 UTC